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help ~ milk drastically dropping

My lo in 10 months now and for some reason I feel like my milk has almost vanished. I know it hasn't, but I am not pumping as much as I used to. Usually I will pump 12 to 15 oz during the day while at work and then I will usually pump once at home before I go to bed after she has nursed. On may 2 my husband & I went to the movies and his sister watched her which she had 1 bottle of breastmilk, I didn't pump that night to make up for it as I had enough milk for that monday so I wasn't worried. I have never had such a drastic drop by not pumping one time like that. Now I feel like I am playing catch up and instead of catching up I am falling more and more behind. I pumped last night before bed and only got 1 oz total, usually I would get 2-3 oz. then I pumped this morning afte she nursed and I only got 2 oz total, I would normally get 3-4 oz after morning feed. I had to pump last night and this morning because I only got 9 oz yesterday while at work. Which I did pump in the morning yesterday so that can account for the difference. Also when she nurses she usually nurses about 5-10 min on 1 side and is very satisfied. Now she is nursing 2-3 min on one side, getting frustrated and then she will nurse on the other side for about 5 min or so. Is this normal for this age, is she going through a growing sput? I know she is teething, she finally cut her first tooth 2 weeks ago, and I can feel others coming in? I have upped my water intake tremendously so I know I am not dehydrated, and she has had plenty of diapers both wet and poos!

Re: help ~ milk drastically dropping

Originally Posted by lilkins

not sure, how can I tell if something is wrong with the pump?

Sorry I reread your post. I guess I thougth you said bf was going ok but pumping was not.

Can you add an extra pump session at work? And when your w/ baby nurse as often as possible. I'm not sure what your sleeping arrangements are but if you co-sleep, nursing throught the night would help bring your supply back up.

I think the most important thing to bring your supply back up is pumping and nursing as frequently as possible. Even if your not getting very much!!

Re: help ~ milk drastically dropping

pregnant???? I don't think so, but I will take a test to see, we are being careful, but of course we aren't 100% safe. We do co-sleep, but she has started sleeping better this week (she finally has her 1st tooth in pretty good), she used to wake up at least twice at night, now it is only one. My supply is getting better. I pump at night after her feeding right before bed, 2 times at work and then once in morning. I am now getting about 10-11 oz during work, and then back up to a little more then 2 oz before bed and in the morning. So it is slowing increasing. She still nurses for about 4 min - I have noticed that she sometimes has a hard time keeping up with flow and sometimes chokes now. Her latch feels 7 looks alright. She seems to eat just enough to get satisfied and then she is ready to play.. I will keep working hard though - my goal is to make it a year and then see what we do from there.

Re: help ~ milk drastically dropping

I had not seen that resourse before. It is great! There could be several things I guess. AF - not a regular thing. I have had only one full cylcle since Lilly was born, and have had a couple of tiny ones, just enough for me to get and then it was over. The last one was about 2 weeks ago - only for like 2 days and that was also during a time she had a sinus infection and wasn't nursing as much! I guess I will just have to keep working hard and in the mean time elimate possiblities one at a time to find out what the problem is/was!

Re: help ~ milk drastically dropping

I have had two problems with my pump that caused milk production issues for me. (I have the Medela, "Pump in Style".)

The little yellow part that has the flap was not getting a good seal because the piece had gone down the drain and got nicked a little by the garbage disposal. The nick was small..hardly noticeable, but it was enough to keep it from "sucking" properly. So I had to get those replaced.

The second issue which is more recent is that my power supply cord wasn't providing enough power. (I had wrapped the cord around the plug too many times and the cord was just mangled.) So it was only giving me minimal power. I called Medela...and they were wonderful to do deal with...they offered to replace the stuff for free.

Once I got the new cord...I was able to get 3-4 ounces in the evening (whereas before I was only getting about 2.)

Last note: My milk really changed at about 7 months...it's a struggle because sometimes I make enough milk...sometimes I don't. I posted something yesterday (title, "experienced nursing moms - please read") and one of the leaders basically told me that I need to pump more and in about a week I should notice an increase. I find that my milk is sometimes ample and sometimes low...I just do what I can to keep up.